Terje Gaustad

Biography

Dr. Terje Gaustad is Adjunct Associate Professor at the BI Norwegian Business School. He holds a PhD in Strategic Management from the BI Norwegian Business School and an M.A. in Communication Management from the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California. His professional entertainment industry background includes production credits for feature films such as the British comedies “Save Angel Hope” (2007) and “Nasty Neighbours” (1999), as well as positions as an Entertainment Industry Analyst at Baskerville Communications Corp. and as Motion Picture Coordinator for Business and Legal Affairs at Playboy Entertainment Group. He is currently Chairman and CEO of Vanquish Alliance Entertainment, which he co-founded in 2001. He lives in Switzerland.

Research areas

Terje Gaustad’s main research interests are in institutional and organizational economics applied to the entertainment industries. He is currently chairing a research project subgroup at the BI Center for Creative Industries studying efficiency in copyright enforcement and diversity effects of cinema digitization.

Teaching areas

Terje Gaustad has developed BI Norwegian Business School’s executive education in production management, and he also teaches creative industries management, cultural leadership and media economics.

Digitizing local cinema: Lessons on diversity from Norway

Digitization contains a promise of limitlessness, and the digitization of local cinemas is typically associated with intentions and expectations of greater repertory diversity. Yet, in the case of local cinemas, the promise of limitlessness encounters not only the physical constrains of single or few screens, which is typical of many local cinemas, but also the constraining influences of market forces. In theory, the self-regulated market can both increase and reduce diversity. Chris Anderson’s “Long Tail”-theory predicts that, with digital technology, local cinema film supply and consumption will be spread over a greater number of titles. However, Anita Elberse’s “Blockbuster”-theory predicts the opposite effect, that digitized local cinemas would increasingly focus on few, popular titles to maximize attendance. This chapter studies the repertory effects of digitizing Norwegian local cinemas. Within a period from 2009 to 2012, all local cinemas were equipped with digital projection technology, making Norway the first country in the world to fully digitize its cinemas. Yet, due to a virtual print fee introduced to finance the conversion, parts of the “analogue” business model stayed in force until 2016, when the fee was retracted. By studying local cinema repertory and attendance in 2008, 2013 and 2017 we can thus draw a picture of how digital technology affected local cinema in Norway. As to the effects of globalization and digitalization on cultural homogenization our results are ambivalent: We find elements of long-tail effects in the form of a greater number of culturally diverse titles offered to local patrons, but also blockbuster effects as local supply and demand remains concentrated around popular titles.

Gaustad, Terje (2019)

How streaming services make cinema more important: Lessons from Norway

The technocultural disruption triggered by digitization has radically changed the way in which we consume films outside cinemas and transformed content providers’ business models. In Norway, between 2010 and 2016, DVD/Bluray and subscription-based streaming services switched places as major and minor platforms for home video consumption. Hence, home video consumption has migrated from a high-yielding platform at the head of the home video release cycle to a low-yielding platform at the tail end, where films also face tougher competition from drama series and international content tends to surpass local content. A case study of the earnings generated by local films released by a major distributor in this period suggests that home video revenues have diminished, making local films much more dependent on theatrical revenues and vulnerable to changes in cinema-going behavior.

Gaustad, Terje (2018)

How Financing Shapes a Film Project: Applying Organizational Economics to a Case Study in Norway

This chapter explores key issues in film financing from the perspective of organizational economics. It examines the contractual relationships between investors and producers and analyzes how these relationships affect the formation and implementation of a single film project strategy. I argue that contracting problems can arise as a “natural” part of the financing process and can harm the project strategy in two important ways: (1) Through an incomplete alignment of objectives, which may lead to the formation of ambiguous strategies and (2) through a weak governance structure with insufficient contractual safeguards for the strategy implementation, which may result in deviations from the agreed strategy. Based on an examination of these two problem areas, I suggest a contracting-dependent model that leads to four generic film project strategies and further discuss the performance implications for each of these. Finally, to demonstrate the likely effects in a Scandinavian context, I apply the model to a case study of the current Norwegian film support system.

Gaustad, Terje & De Paoli, Donatella (2017)

New Faculty Roles in Online Education: The Professor as Writer, Director, Actor and Producer?